Glow-in-the-Dark Space Oil Slime. Sticky Slugs. Vinyl Pig Splat Balls. If it’s delightful or disgusting, you can find it at Fun Express, a leading B2B supplier of toys, novelties, and giftware. Fun Express is part of the wholesale division of Oriental Trading Company, established in 1932 as a supplier of novelties to the US carnival trade. Over the decades, the business expanded into catalogs and direct marketing, then during the dot-com boom in 1999, a Fun Express website. Since then, the company has supplied custom fidget-spinners to redemption centers, promotional drink cups to food service companies, and branded t-shirts for fundraising campaigns.

Fun Express knew they had to adapt fast to meet the changing needs of their B2B customer base, but managing their existing platform was anything but fun. The home-brewed platform, managed by their parent company, was cumbersome and lacked B2B features. This made it difficult for the brand to improve their site experience and keep content fresh. So Fun Express made the decision to move to Magento Commerce 2.1. Moving to Magento delivered a more modern, flexible platform that allowed them to innovate and drive their business forward.

Magento Commerce put us in control of our own destiny. We can now add features and functionality quickly to meet the needs of our B2B customers and compete more effectively in the industry.

Chris Link eCommerce Marketing Manager, Fun Express

A B2B platform for the future of fun.

Fun Express worked with Sooryen, a third-party technology development agency and Magento Partner, to design and build their new B2B experience, without feeling the constraints of competing corporate priorities. They built a site that’s mobile friendly, has a responsive design, and is far more secure. Navigating through the company’s 40,000 SKUs is now faster and easier. There’s faceted product search by industry or product category, like ‘party supplies,’ and ‘arts & crafts.’ A food service business, for example, can search through product categories relevant to their industry, easily locating meal toys, stickers, or placemats to bring a smile to their customer’s children.

Fun Express discovered that with Magento Commerce, they can move faster than ever, adding new capabilities as needed. The team focused on delivering the best customer experience, and aimed their online store at B2B wholesale customers small, large, and huge. The Punchout2Go extension helped them sell to larger corporations who typically make purchases through centralized procurement platforms.

Magento Commerce easily integrated with the company’s Product Information Management (PIM) system and several other custom backend systems for customer processing and invoicing. This gives Fun Express the ability to manage customer-specific pricing, customer-specific catalogs, and complex product orders like personalized candies and customized rubber duckies.

Everything’s easier in-house.

The new Fun Express B2B site launched in March of 2018. With Magento Commerce, the company’s nimble eCommerce team of five can easily handle search, create new landing pages, emails, site merchandising, and analytics in-house without relying on the corporate tech team. Since launch, the website has enjoyed a boost in mobile traffic and SEO rankings due to the improved mobile experience and the transition to HTTPS. They’ve proved how a flexible commerce platform can really make B2B fun.